Physical Therapy for a Dx of Chiari?

[gmaldonado]

Has anyone ever been referred to physical therapy for your chiari symptoms? If so, why does it consist of?

[selmaS]

Well, I had whiplash yrs ago, and yes, relaxing those muscles can release some pain...make more room?...not sure, but ok, I give her that it may give some room to not have the muscles all bunched  up....but do be careful as to what is done at ur neck area as far as PT goes.

I really do not think if u didn't have chiari u can not understand just how bad it makes u feel.

Good luck and be careful : )
"selma"

[dsan0696]

Well I had my 1st 2 days IN A ROW without severe pain....NO muscle relaxers, just ibuprofen.   I swear it is the stimulation & massage & 3 days a week (plus I do stretches & working muscles...but those are what are relaxing them).    I am not getting my hopes up of course, because I never am that lucky....BUT I also was SO excited because last night was the 1st time in 5 weeks that I was able to do something with my family and went to the store to pick out a new fan.....my husband & boys were also VERY excited and HAPPY.   Of course I told them too not to get hopes up too much because seems like nothing good lasts longer than 4 days for me :-(      
So, today at P.T. I was even able to increase my few strength exercises to 2 reps each...wow!

gmaldonado:   I was persistant when I started this P.T. and asked them if they had any clue what CM1 was and if not to please look into it some.   The P.T. new some, but massage therapist didn't, so they DID look into it together and then tended to understand my situation more.   You could even print stuff out for them if needed?????    I think it really helped.   They seemed to understand why I neither can handle exercise right now....the pain was too bad.   Your P.T. wants 30 minutes & then "me" time.....I couldn't even imagine 10 minutes of cardio or anything with impact type exercise (maybe until a week after starting...amazed how I feel, but will not push it either!)        As for the "make room"   I basically get it now because of the muscles tension.  I had never really realized how many muscles were in the skull before I started my P.T. this time.   She made sense by telling me that all those muscles tensed up just PULL on my skull even more and since the bigger ones are in the shoulder area, it all pulls down to that area.   SO, in turn....our heads are being pulled down even further into our already malformed base of skull & neck area........make sense?  

I will keep you guys updated on my situation.      ALSO, my I have found wearing only my really good supportive cushy tennis shows helps a LOT (verses my Keens and others sandals that are supposed to be great support, etc.....not enough though)
Take care,
Denise

[Sweetpea32]

I have been going to PT for the last 5 months post op surgery 9/09 and 10/09 surgeries. This helps relieve the muscle tension around my neck muscles and the section above my bra strap. They do a lot of massage therapy. Never really going to much near my neck or anywhere around my incision. I was going 2 times a week. now slowed down to every other week to see how it goes. If it wasnt for PT after surgery I would be a mess. They do a lot of cranial manipulation which relieves so much tension in my head. They have me doing some strength training. I do in moderation. I work on daily stretches that help get me through the work day. I feel this is something I will have to rely on for the rest of my life. But its a blessing to be able to have PT and they understand all my aches and pains and always willing and able to relieve my pain when I see them. They have given me so many ideas on shoes to wear, bras to wear (because I cannot stand the straps on my shoulders), they have helped with directions for NL around the area that I am looking into now for follow up care. I just pray my insurance keeps covering my PT for the year. I am coming up on my year anniversary of my first surgery, So I also pray PT will not be needed as much as now. Hope everyone is able to find some kind of relief. PT/massage therapy was a blessing for me!

[survivor08]

PT was the first place I was sent YEARS ago when my back/spine pain started becoming chronic.

Now let me give you a bit of background as to what I was doing when I was sent to a PT:  I was teaching aerobic classes, lifting weights and personal training clients.  Guess what the PT wanted to do with me.........."strength my back".  Well needless to say after my first session, PT didnt know what to do beings I was ALREADY strong as a freaking ox....... so he did massage therapy....which I LOVED, but it didn't help :(

My opinion?  It is a first alternative, standard therapy for just about EVERYTHING.

[linnielou232]

I went to a deep tissue massage therapist for at least 2 year's before my surgery and she was my savior.  After the Chairi got worse I stopped it because of fear of hurting my chairi more.  I am glad that the massage is working.  I went to my PT appt 1st time and was sent to Dr right away because they think it is a CSF leak.  I have MRI on tues, Dr. Wed.  he is sure it is a CSF but has to find out where.  So my journey will start all over again.  I was looking forward to PT because I know it will help the healing.  Also when she was looking at my incision.  The cold hands massaging it felt good. LOL.  ready to get back to recovery

[gmaldonado]

thank you for your input. I went to my actual therapy this past tues. she had me "warm up" only upper body on a bike type thing w/no pressure on it. then we worked on stretching my upper body and then the massage...which was very very painful but it felt good afterwards. She insists in having me do exercise 3 x a wk for 30mins..I bearly have time to take a shower before i got to go to bed...and this past weekend i was loading things into my car cause my friend moved out and i had to sit down because the palpitation got really strong and i felt like iw as going to faint. I'm scared of exercising period. I think there are other things going on in my body that i need a diagnosis for...either that or Chiari is throwing my whole body out of whack. I dont believe its a coinsidence that many of us experience the same symptoms and doctors dont make that connection.